Connecticut 2013

Mitt's Sandy Errors

4 Ways Mitt Romney Botched His Hurricane Sandy Response | Addicting Info

The Real October Surprise

Sandy puts climate change back on the US election agenda | Environment | The Guardian

The images of a paralysed New York City at the mercy of Hurricane Sandy's wall of water have forced climate change on to the political agenda in the final week of the 2012 presidential election campaign. Campaigners said the devastating storm could turn out to be the October Surprise of the elections, exposing Republicans' failure to engage with an issue that is no longer a distant threat, but a present day danger...

North Carolina Republicans, at various times. have made an effort to pass legislation that would force everyone in the state to pay the same base premium for home insurance, in effect, forcing poorer mountainous counties to subsidize the wealthy coastal communities and their hurricane prone homes. This little bit of attempted socialism was the Republicans only sorta positive response to climate change, though they all seem to think oil drilling and fracking are also positive responses to climate change, which, of course isn't happening anyway so who cares?

Oh, and by the way, "normalcy"  is illiterate, even if it was spoken by a POTUS; things should return to normality.

High Snow

A few miles north and a thousand feet higher...

Update: Tuesday, Oct.30 8:21 p.m. Winds died down. Snow all around but none here in the valley. Two feet on the ground in the GSMNP; expecting another foot in the park.

Update: 5:34 p.m. Wind gusts up to 65 mph; calling for two feet of snow in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, about 30 miles west of me. Snow creeping closer.

Update: 5:43 p.m. Oh and btw, another earthquake.

Update: 11:00 p.m. Local news crew stuck on top of mountain.Video here.

 News 13's Russ Bowen and photojournalist Adam Jukkola found themselves being part of the story instead of covering the story.

They were traveling in Haywood County as part of our team snow coverage when GPS sent them up Wesley Creek Road to get to their destination. It was the wrong road. Their vehicle got stuck in heavy snow and they had to call Haywood County 911. Fines Creek Volunteer Fire Department and Rabbit Skin Wrecker Service came to their rescue...

Climate & Sandy

Well, duh.
Did Climate Change Cause Hurricane Sandy? | Observations, Scientific American Blog Network

If you’ve followed the U.S. news and weather in the past 24 hours you have no doubt run across a journalist or blogger explaining why it’s difficult to say that climate change could be causing big storms like Sandy. Well, no doubt here: it is...

No Weather Excitement Here

The Weather Isn't Getting Weirder - WSJ.com: "...Global-warming alarmists insist that economic activity is the problem, when the available evidence show it to be part of the solution. We may not be able to do anything about the weather, extreme or otherwise. But we can make sure we have the resources to deal with it when it comes."

Volcano Bail-Out Coming?

Air Travel Chaos Sends Businesses Scrambling - NYTimes.com
"Businesses around Europe were scrambling to make contingency plans Friday as a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland kept airports closed, while insurance companies were hoping to avoid having to cover any losses.

The continued grounding of most flights in northern Europe was forcing suppliers to seek alternative delivery routes for high-value components and perishables like flowers and food that are usually moved by air..."